The Lord's Sermons
- Sermon 23 -
Cantate Sunday. The Eternal Destination
St. John XVI, 5-6: "But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart."
(March 18, 1872)
Behold, this is the text for this particular Sunday and although it appears to be easy to understand, it contains far more than you suspect.
You believe that I say these words to My disciples - always speaking of Father and Son - in order to prepare them for the events that were close at hand, which events were the completion of My life on earth. I could explain to them My relationship with their Jehovah only as that of a father and son, a metaphor comprehensible to their worldly thinking and in its spiritual correspondence fully expressing the relationship between love and wisdom, since I as Wisdom became a man but as Love remained the eternal Preserver and Creator of the entire universe.
I said to them: "I go My way to Him that sent Me and none of you asketh Me, whither goest thou? But only sorrow hath filled your hearts because of the thought you might lose Me."
This unexpected prediction that a separation between Me and them might be possible, this thought that did not fit into their idea of My deity and My mission, made them sad and so they found no answer to these words nor did they know what to ask. Therefore I reminded them of this, saying that nobody asked Me: "Where are you going?" This was the question they did not think of. They could not imagine that I could ever leave them. And if they did believe in Me as God who had come to the world in order to liberate mankind from its worldly fetters, they, of course, did not know where I was to go. For, although influenced by My words and miracles they were convinced of My divine origin, they still converted many spiritual concepts into worldly ideas. As a result, there would follow false conclusions, which happened often when they did not comprehend My metaphors or My words and accused Me of speaking harshly or incomprehensibly.
I said at that time: "I go to Him that sent Me!" And now, after so many centuries have passed, I put the question to you and all mankind: "Where do you go. and who has sent you?" For, just as I have My mission, My aim or a "Why" of My existence, so have all the beings created out of Me, even the most solid and gross matter, since this, as the visible expression of bound and hardened spirits, must have its purpose, its mission.
Therefore, now that the trial period is approaching its end, I am asking people through political, religious and elementary events: "Where are you going?", so that they may remember who they actually are and why they were sent to this earth.
The spiritual wind preceding My coming in order to clean the air from miasmas, stimulates activity in everything as the gentle breezes of spring act in material life. Everywhere the questions are heard: "Why am I actually here?", "What am I actually?" and "What is my final destination, or where am I going?"
Once taken unawares by such thoughts, the thinking person will, of course, find himself placed between two worlds, a visible and an invisible one. He will no longer be satisfied with the few clues offered by the transitoriness of all created things, to give him comfort and peace of mind. Everything that comes into existence before his eyes, he sees again passing away, changing. And these examples make him ask the things he sees arising and passing away before his eyes, as well as himself: "Whence are you, all you wondrous and mysterious created beings, and whither do you go?"
Thus he greets that which is arriving and thus he asks the departing. And he is also compelled to ask himself the same questions, since he, himself, if only he devotes some thought to this, is an even greater and more complex enigma than all the other visible things. These questions, which keep emerging time and time again, do compel people, or at least many of them, to a better judgment regarding the existing things and what they have acquired by study. And where the final results of such exploration do not offer sufficient truth and clarity, many doubts arise that, not satisfied with the results, demand more certainty, more clarity.
This striving has always been the beginning of spiritual and worldly revolutions. It is the inevitable spiritual wind, which keeps awakening human nature every time it is on the verge for sinking into a comfortable sleep of worldly pleasure.
Two things have once again stirred up this wind: Firstly, My coming in the near future as the completion and crowning of the mission I once carried out on your earth; and, secondly, all mankind's propensity - from the highest to the lowest - to indulge in worldly pleasures and disavow the spiritual. And the call is once more sounded in all minds, of which many are unaware: "Whither are we going?" and "Why are we here?" It is the unsatisfactory answer the present spiritual trend is giving to this question that causes the overthrow of all established things, the yearning for something new; not illusions, however, but the truth.
People feel that the invisible realm cannot be denied. Some scholars' efforts to prove that there is only matter and the spiritual does not exist, are in vain. People feel that the emptiness in their hearts is not being filled by all the gross material thrown into them by the intellect. It vanishes as in a bottomless barrel, and the old question is facing them again.
Thus mankind is compelled to free itself at last from its shackles, from the leading-string which many are inclined to use only for their own advantage.
This situation, this conflict, had to precede My coming, so that in the end I would have to deal only with those who preferred the spiritual to the material and know whence they have come, why they are here and whither they are destined to go. These will be the ones that, surviving all storms, will have kept themselves pure in the filth of worldly egoism and thoughtlessness. For these alone I shall be the shepherd and they shall be My sheep.
This very serious question is also put to you, My children, whom among so many I chose that you may - guided by My direct communication - lead the way as an example also for others. The lifespan that is still allowed you on this earth is posing this question to you: "Where are you going?" This means: Remember the responsibility you have taken upon yourselves by wishing to hear the Word of God, your Father. Through this listening you have also accepted the obligation to practise this teaching, for, hearing but not practising it is quite useless.
You, who hear My Word, have been taught and are aware how it is to be followed; you are twice as culpable if you fail to practise it.
My disciples' hearts filled with sadness as I spoke about My departure to Him Who had sent Me. How will you be feeling when you have to go to Him Who sent you? Make sure that you return to My Kingdom having well used and invested the entrusted capital and do not bury it like the lazy servant. Otherwise, you will be arriving immature in a world where you would find it a burden to live as immature among the mature and as unhappy among the happy.
When you have to go to Him Who sent you, be sure to enter that spirit-realm at least with the conviction to have done all that could be expected of you considering all the knowledge you received. Strive to use My words and My teaching in such a way for yourselves and others that the balance of your life will show many good deeds and only few mistakes. Then you will be able to proceed peacefully and, when asked by your brother: "Where are you going?", point to the morning of the eternal love-light, saying: "I am going whence I have come and where an eternal spiritual progression and drawing ever closer to my Creator and Father is possible!"
I also said: "I go to My Father Who sent me!" But I went fully convinced that I had fulfilled My mission in every respect, although as a man the hardest part was still awaiting Me. You, too, should one day be able to say the same and already now look forward to the triumph when, after struggles and conquered temptations, you may confidently stretch out your hand for the palm of victory.
Those who have only vague concepts or no knowledge at all of My Word, I cannot make as much responsible for their actions as those who know My teaching and understand how and when they have to act in accordance with it. When they intentionally sin against it, they deserve punishment and will be accused - not by Me, but by their own conscience - of fickleness and faint-heartedness because of their great lack of strength and because they, notwithstanding all the aid from above, let themselves be ensnared in the net of worldly pleasures to such an extent that they lost their spiritual dignity.
Therefore, do heed My words! Pleasant as it may be just to hear them, do take them very seriously, for only the strictest observance of My two sole commandments of love can make you children of the Creator of all infinity, My children.
You are not yet able to comprehend in its full significance and depth the prize I am offering you since you do not know My spiritual kingdom. However, if you could see how angels and great spirits envy you this privilege, you would be proud of the fact to have come from Him and be able to again return to Him Who is the essence of love, a love a human heart cannot comprehend.
What inconceivable love reveals itself in the fact that Supreme Divine Love wants to make you Its children, that this Love chose the lowest status on your earth in order to prove, as Jesus once said, - that after the accomplished mission It would as Wisdom reunite with Love, out of which It originated, and where also you could come if you made yourselves worthy of It!
I once returned to My Father Who had sent Me. Also you should strive to reach that destination to receive from His hand the crown of victory for all your struggles and suffering -as I did almost two thousand years ago as Jesus. Amen.